Heat
by Estrelle Buscador
Summary: It had been said that as a person dies, their life flashes before their eyes. So Yugi considered himself lucky that he wasn't seeing anything - but at least it would have been a distraction while he tried to get out of this mess.
1. Before a Fall

Greetings all! For those who have read my other stories, I'm sorry for the delay between stories. I'm trying to step it up.

Anyway, here's the first chapter of my new YGO story. I hope you enjoy it!

Special thanks to yugioratemlover, who made a suggestion that led to this story!

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! or any of its characters.

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><p>It has been said that, when a person is dying, the events of their life flashes before their eyes.<p>

If that was true, the thought brought Yugi a great deal of comfort – all he could see as he stared up at the dark, sandy ceiling of the tomb was a lot of nothing. He was grateful that he wasn't dead, but at least he'd have had something to look at.

He cursed his impulsiveness as he shifted into a more comfortable position, resigning himself to a long wait. Apparently it didn't matter that he was now in his mid-twenties and a full-fledged archaeologist, the prospect of solving a puzzle was still as compelling as it was when he was a student in high school.

Yugi had volunteered to go slightly ahead of the rest of the archaeological expedition with one of the young local guides in order to determine which way they should go next after crossing the chasm that stretched from a storage room to the antechamber of the tomb where Yugi now found himself. The others had preferred to shoulder the weight of the equipment among themselves so that the lingual expert and unofficial master of riddles ahead to cut the time required to continue into the depth of the tomb.

As always, the hieroglyphs carved into the wall of the tomb felt new and exciting, although it was partially flavored with the poignant memory of the wall of the Pharaoh's tomb before he and his friends followed Yami into his memories. He had relished the gritty, dusty feeling across his palm as he wiped the wall clean so he could better read it. It had been a particularly engrossing riddle, and he'd enthusiastically leapt about the antechamber, pressing idols and shifting stones until a portion of the wall slid impressively upwards. If he'd stopped there and waited for the others to catch up, things would have been different. However, he had let his curiosity compel him into the previously concealed chamber. A shocked cry ripped him out of his inner thoughts, and he'd turned around to see the surprised and worried-looking guide sprawled across one of the stones he'd pulled out of the ground…and was now sinking back into the sandy floor. Yugi, who had been fairly deep into the chamber, turned to sprint out into the antechamber. Unfortunately, the portion came down much more quickly than it had gone up, and he'd barely been able to duck back out of the way as it clashed down. Then a piercing pain in his leg, an odd squelching noise, and darkness.

It took several minutes for the pounding heart in his ears to quiet enough so that it could hear the desperate scrabbling on the other side of the sandstone. Oddly enough, the sound brought him some comfort rather than intensifying his anxiety. _Well, at least he didn't do it on purpose._ Yugi was more or less as trusting as he was when he was younger, but he was no stranger to confrontation or traps. _Maybe I'm getting too suspicious,_ he half-heartedly admonished himself before grinning. _Maybe Téa's right – Joey really is rubbing off on me._

The thought of his girlfriend and his best friend brought a smile to his face, but it soon wilted as he thought of how worried they would be if they knew where he was...

···

"What do you mean, he's trapped in there?" Dr. Tosen, the tall and well-muscled head of the expedition boomed as he towered over the trembling guide who looked both guilty and terrified. "What happened?"

The guide, Shaabbon trembled before shakily walking to the center of the antechamber and attempting, in a mixture of miming, Arabic, and disjointed English, to explain what happened. Tosen gnawed his lower lip to keep from shouting any more at the young boy. It wasn't the boy's fault that he couldn't speak English well, but he was lost and unfortunately Mutou was one of the few on the expedition who was fluent enough in Arabic to understand the language when it was being spoken frenetically.

One of the seasoned guides, Sabr, who had a better grasp of English, stepped in to diffuse some of the confusion. "He say _melekh _open the wall and go inside. Then Shaabbon fall on rock and make door close again –_melekh_ trapped." The guides, and especially young Shaabbon, called Yugi _melekh_, or king, apparently because he bore a resemblance to some long-lost Pharaoh that they had seen in another series of tombs. That, and he was known in some circles as the King of Games.

One of the younger assistants burst out laughing. "He fell on the rock and the door closed? What is this, Scooby-Doo?" The gazes of the remaining expedition all swung towards him, and he cringed at the increasingly tearful and confused look of Shaabbon and the irritated glare of Dr. Tosen. "Sorry."

"This is no time for jokes." Tosen nearly growled before turning to face the sandstone wall. "Wonderful," he grumbled under his breath before continuing. "How long has he been in there?"

Shaabbon looked pleadingly at the older guide for help – it was hard to understand English when it was being spoken so quickly and angrily. Sabr translated and the boy responded immediately in Arabic.

Sabr turned to the expedition leader. "Ten minutes."

"How is he?"

The young boy understood the question without translation this time, and tears threatened to spill from his eyes. "No know! No know! I hit and hit wall, but he no hit back!" He looked up at the older guide for reassurance. "He no death?"

As Sabr tried to calm Shaabbon down, Tosen turned more fully towards the wall and walked up to it. Nervously, his breath catching in his throat despite his own efforts to remain calm, he tapped a message on the sandstone wall. Upon hearing no response, he rapped even harder with his knuckles, desperately relaying the same message again.

Tosen was about to panic, regardless of whether others were present, when he heard a firm tapping on the other side of the sandstone. Breath rushed into his lungs and he laughed heartily in relief before sending another message. He positively roared with laughter at the following response, and the rest of the expedition rushed up to see what was happening.

"He no death?" Shaabbon asked tentatively but hopefully.

"No, he's fine." Tosen grinned down at the young boy, who almost immediately relaxed.

"Praise Allah," Sabr murmured under his breath

"How do you know?" One of the other archaeologists asked.

"Remember how I complained that Mutou kept wanting me to learn Morse code with him? In case of emergencies?" The archaeologist nodded. "Well, he was right, blast him, and I'll never hear the end of it now. He says he's okay, just that it's really dark in there and he feels better about losing his sunblock since he won't be needing it right now." Tosen straightened up and his face became business-like. "Now we got to get him out of there."

···

Yugi let his arm fall as he felt more than heard the rumble of footsteps and voices as the others shuffled around in the antechamber trying to come up with a plan. He hoped they would hurry. He had said he was fine, but that was without mentioning the sharp pain around his leg.

And the liquid that he just noticed was beginning to seep from around his leg to his waist.

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><p>AN: Dun dun dun! What's going to happen now?

Thanks for reading and please review! Reviews make me happy!


	2. Waiting

Greetings all! Here is the next chapter of _Heat_. I hope you enjoy it.

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! or any of its characters.

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><p>Even though they'd heard from <em>melekh<em>, and knew that he was alive, Shaabbon felt scared and uneasy. Aside from the other guides, _melekh_ was the only person on the expedition who too the time tom talk to him and get to know him. _It's all my fault,_ Shaabbon sniffled and he made a valiant effort to wipe away the brimming tears.

Luckily, the older members of the expedition were too absorbed in trying to figure out what to do next to notice the tears.

Although relieved that they hadn't lost one of his most valued archaeologists, Tosen's face quickly sank into a pensive frown. Yugi was alive, but there was no telling what could happen if they couldn't get him out quickly. Tosen was by no means wet behind the ears – he'd been on expeditions plagued with illness, dogged by irritated natives and press groups, been hopelessly lost, and dealt with serious injuries. But he'd never been in a situation quite like this one. He mentally smirked, in spite of himself. _Leave it to Motou to be different._

Even compared to his grandfather, who was recognized in archaeological circles, even years after retiring from fieldwork, as being brilliant but decidedly eccentric, Yugi was markedly different from most other archaeologists in his field. Neither adventurous and blunt nor bookish and timid, Yugi was instead a sort of blend between the two common types. Whenever the expedition was in a town or village between dig sites, the rooms that Yugi stayed in was practically overflowing with historical books, ancient scrolls, and puzzles, but he didn't use them as a type of sanctuary from the rest of the group. Instead, he was perfectly willing to set aside his cherished books and puzzles to swap stories with the other archaeologists, play games with the older guides or teach Duel Monsters to the younger ones. He also took a lot of his spare time to teach any guides who wanted to learn to speak English.

Everyone on the expedition got along with him, and most of them liked him. Even the few members of the archaeological expedition who found him a bit nerdish respected his knowledge and humble attitude. Tosen was known to joke that Yugi was his insurance against mutiny because he was able to almost effortlessly diffuse any tensions between the leader and the rest of the expedition that were caused by Tosen's more brusque manner.

It was that personality, as well as his knowledge of languages that had made Yugi the most successful of all those who had tried to teach Shaabbon English. It also didn't hurt that he was the boy's idol – which was probably intensifying the guilt that Shaabbon was feeling for inadvertently trapping Yugi in the first place.

"Should we start notifying his relatives?" Tosen asked, combing the accumulated dirt and sand from his thick brown mustache.

"Isn't that early?" One of the older archaeologists asked, with a somewhat appalled expression. "Aren't you giving up on the boy a bit too soon?"

"I'm not giving up on Mutou," Tosen replied in a tone that was somehow both gruff and placating, "But wouldn't you want to know if you were his family?"

"Perhaps," the other conceded, "but we might just succeed in making them worry and give his grandfather a heart attack. Besides, what can they do all the way in Japan?"

"Japan?" A tentative but eager voice piped up and the others looked over at Shaabbon, who looked determined to say something. "And U.S.!" He looked around, "His fence in U.S.!"

"Fence?" Tosen muttered, looking at the boy curiously. As far as he knew, Mutou didn't have a home in America, let alone a fence.

"No," Shaabbon shook his head, "his fancy, his fancy in Amer'ca."

The archaeologists looked almost pleadingly at Sabr for translation, who nodded to Shaabbon for the Arabic equivalent. Shaabbon stubbornly shook his head and persisted to explain in the words he'd learned. "_Melekh_ say he have finacy in Amer'ca!"

Tosen swore virulently under his breath. He remembered Yugi mentioning a girl in America – several times, now that he thought on it, but he hadn't mentioned that they were engaged. _Great,_ he groaned, _how am I supposed to tell her about this?_

···

The girl in question was sitting in front of her computer in her New York apartment, trying to shove away the nervous feeling that had swept over in a clammy, cold wave for the past half-hour.

Téa Gardner, who as it happened was not Yugi's fiancée, although a velvet box in his suitcase back in Cairo suggested that that would soon change, was in New York to dance. More specifically, she was there to try her luck on the stage in both acting and dancing, preferably on Broadway although she was grateful for any opportunity that came by. It had not been easy to leave Japan, the home and the friends that she'd always known, but she knew she had to give it a try. The scholarship for the dance program had been a push in the right direction, and the support from her family, friends, and boyfriend had certainly helped. So far, she had been exceptionally lucky and had already managed a few small supporting roles on Broadway. And tonight, after hours and hours of rehearsals and practice, she had been approached by both the director and dance instructor and told she was to have a much bigger supporting role in an upcoming production. Several of her friends in the chorus had shrieked in raucous support and dragged her out to celebrate.

By the time she finally dragged herself home, her tiredness rapidly disappeared as she realized she finally had the opportunity to tell Yugi the good news. She had booted up her computer, her fingers and gratefully unshod toes tapping an impatient yet syncopated rhythm as she waited, before realizing that she wanted to tell him the news in person…or at least over the phone.

Grateful that Yugi had helped her buy a phone that made international calls, she had punched in his speed dial and listened excitedly to the rings as she waited for him to pick up. When it went to voicemail, she sighed and put down the phone. It didn't really come as a surprise that he couldn't pick up – odds were good that he was on the dig site rather than in his hotel room. It wasn't as though pyramids had cell reception.

_Besides,_ she reminded herself as she opened her email service, absentmindedly opening the last email he had sent her, _he mentioned that he would be out on the dig site for several days in his last letter._ The thought gave her a momentary soothing feeling, but it slipped away when she looked at the date the email had been sent – almost a week and a half before.

Téa tried to ignore the increasingly uneasy feeling as she kept a persistent on her email screen, waiting for a message to magically appear from Yugi. The last thing she wanted to be was clingy – just the adjective brought back cringe-worthy memories of Vivian practically assaulting Yugi at past tournaments – but she was becoming more and more worried that he hadn't written her since then.

Téa knew it was unreasonable to expect daily messages – she hardly wrote that many and she was constantly near technology whereas Yugi was not – but she typically would have gotten a message from earlier in the week. _What is he up to?_

Like the rest of Yugi's friends,

Téa was happy that he had found a job that he was happy with as an archaeologist, but being his girlfriend and also a consummate mother hen, she worried about him when he went into the more unstable and dangerous sites. It didn't that he – and the rest of the old gang – had been through worse. She still worried.

_Yugi, you had better be all right…_

···

Complaining didn't do much to improve an already bad situation, but it was becoming for Yugi to ignore the throbbing pain in his leg or the wetness that was creeping up from his leg and soaking the back of his shirt. He vaguely wondered if he was bleeding to death from whatever injury was in his leg, and then tried to ignore the thought as he pushed himself into a sitting position.

His eyes were finally adjusting to the lack of light and he squinted at his leg in an effort to determine what was the matter. His eyes widened in shock.

_Oh, wow…_

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><p>AN: I'm beginning to suspect I have some sort of cliffhanger addiction. Ah well... I promise that there will be more Yugi in the next chapter!

Thanks for reading and please review! They make me happy!


	3. Sharp Minds

Greetings Readers! Here is the new chapter for Heat. I hope you enjoy it.

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! or any of its characters.

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><p>Every single archaeologist on the expedition was one of the top in their fields. That was a good thing. What was not such a good thing was that knowledge made them all opinionated, which made decision-making a challenge at times.<p>

"You're willing to let him die just so we don't destroy that wall?" One of the older archaeologists cried out indignantly. It was something of an unspoken rule that they would work as hard as possible to preserve the past, occasionally at the expense of the present – but risking someone's life to preserve a wall was pushing it.

"Well," one of the bookish archaeologists replied, adjusting his sandy glasses in a confident manner, "it is a nearly pristine example of 2600 B.C. Egyptian craftsmanship-"

"No!" Tosen gruffly cut through the relished description and the shocked gasps, "but I don't know how we can get through. That sandstone's too thick to smash through with what we got here. And even if we could, the whole structure could come crashing down on him – or us." Tosen pushed back the hat that the younger guys claimed he stole from Indiana Jones and wiped the sweat from his forehead. "Any chance that Shaabbon remembers what Mutou did to get in there?"

Sabr looked back at Shaabbon and asked. Shaabbon lost the worried look on his face long enough to cross his eyes and reply with a short answer. Sabr turned back to the rest of the expedition. "Not in a million years."

"Wonderful," Tosen leaned back against the sandstone, out of exhaustion and a vague, futile wish that the pressure would be enough to send the wall crashing down. "So now what – what the-?"

He leapt back in shock, watching the liquid slowly seep from underneath the wall of sandstone, soaking up the dust and dirt and sand.

···

"Ya mean ta say my best pal got trapped in a tomb and bled to death and I wasn't there to help him?"

Yugi had to smile at the indignation he imagined would be in Joey's voice as he busied himself with the knife and strap. As it was, the imagined Joey was wrong about what had happened. Yugi was not bleeding to death – it wasn't even his blood soaking up the ground and his clothes. He should have known – there was no telltale coppery smell in the air and there was no sticky residue congealing on the ground or in his clothes.

When he'd gone into the tomb, the leather canteen slung across his shoulders had bobbed irritatingly in front of his neck as he'd tried to read the inscriptions on the walls, so he'd laid it on the ground. In his haste to try and make it into the antechamber once the door was falling, he hadn't watched his footing and had hooked the canteen strap around his ankle. When he pulled back to keep from being crushed, he and his leg had been lucky, but the canteen was not. It had been crushed in the middle, with the outer halves bursting under the pressure, sending waves out to soak the ground. Unfortunately, the strap was also caught beneath the wall, crushed into the dirt, dust and sandstone and dragging Yugi's leg with it. His right leg was wrapped in the strap and strapped against the wall with all the compressing force of a vice. The dull, lingering pain in his leg came as something like a relief now – at least the strap wasn't cutting off circulation.

A cold wave of realization spread over him as he noticed that the toes and pad of his feet was beginning to grow numb.

···

The archaeologists gave as thorough a scrutiny to the liquid seeping under the wall as if it were a piece of broken pottery of ancient jewelry. There was so much dark dirt and sand that the color of the liquid could not be discerned. The younger members of the expedition looked at the growing stain and each other perplexedly, but the older archaeologists bore grim expressions as they looked at the damp sand, their minds working furiously. They were no strangers to severe injury incurred on expeditions, and were all assuming the worse, moving up the deadline on getting Yugi out of the tomb. And even with swift medical treatment…

Tosen broke out of his pessimistic thoughts and strode forward. He brushed his fingers against the damp sand and gave it a curious sniff, before beating a measured tattoo on the wall. He turned to the confused spectators and said, "I'm asking if he's hurt."

Actually, being something of a blunt and macabre person, his actual message was "That's not your blood, is it?"

A few agonizing moments passed before a firm rapping answered. "No. My water canteen busted. Leg sore but okay."

"He's alive," Tosen said with audible relief and he could hear the others relax behind him, "and he doesn't seem to be hurt too bad. It's water from his canteen we're seeing." Trepidation set back in as he thought over what he'd said. His co-leader of the expedition was not bleeding to death, but in an area so hot and dry, he could easily dehydrate to death. A line from his high school biology textbook leapt unbidden to his mind.

"While the human body can go without food for a month, it cannot survive more than a few days without water."

···

It took no small amount of shifting, but Yugi was finally able to reach into the pocket hung on his belt loop. Snapping open the button that held the pocket flap closed, he reached in and pulled out a folded pocketknife. It was a gift from Joey when Yugi had graduated with his degree in archaeology.

The two of them had gone into the game shop section of Grandpa's house to look at a new shipment had come in, as Téa, Serenity, and Mai were setting up the living room for the graduation party. Joey had not gone to college like the rest of the old gang, instead going into business with Grandpa at the Game Shop. Business had been going well, well enough for Joey to brag that he didn't have to go to college to make a living, but the others had managed to persuade and bully him into attending night classes at Domino Community College.

Joey had pulled out the knife with a practiced air before showing it to Yugi. It had been wrapped in typical Joey fashion, with a cockeyed bow tied around the knife. Furtively glancing around, he opened the knife and held it appraisingly for Yugi to look at it. Yugi had had to bite back a smile at Joey's furtive glance – despite his confident air and self-professed 'tough-guy' status, Joey was completely henpecked by his sister and girlfriend. Mai and Serenity seemed worried that Joey, although he had left his bullying and gang member days behind him, would be seduced back into those more violent ways if he kept contact with violent things.

"Ya might need this, Yug', when you go on all those excitin' expeditions," Joey said confidently, "ya never know when it might come in handy."

Yugi grinned and said thanks before taking the knife in his hand, testing its weight as he shifted it with his fingers. "This is great."

Joey gave him one of his toothy grins and a thumbs up. "Okay, close your eyes." Yugi gave him an odd look. "Just trust me, all right."

Yugi had complied, hoping with all his heart that Joey or Tristan wouldn't jump him from behind and cause him to accidently stab himself. Joey carefully took the knife from him and closed it before returning it to Yugi's palm. "Keep your eyes closed and open it."

Yugi only just managed to keep his eyes from opening. "What?"

"C'mon, Yug'. Who knows when you'll have to use this? It's not like you'll always be near a light when ya need to use it. You gotta feel as comfortable openin' it in the dark as ya are when ya can see." Yugi's eyes relaxed and he nodded. Joey grinned and continued. "Okay, pass your fingers across the knife, find the grooves and remember where they are – that way ya can open it without seeing. You can just feel it. Feel it, know it like tha' curves of a woman."

It was a strain for Yugi to keep from laughing, and Joey quickly backpedaled. "Yeah, don't tell Mai I said that, will ya?"

"Don't tell Mai what?" The blonde-haired woman in question asked as she came down the stairs.

Yugi smiled fondly at the memory as he felt the familiar grooves. Joey had had a hard time getting out of that one. _Thanks, Joey,_ he thought as he swung the knife open.

Yugi held the knife firmly in one hand, and used the other to try and find a slack area in the strap. Unfortunately, the only one he could find was right above his leg. He carefully slid the blade, flat side down, under the strap and moved the sharp side against the leather. Knife rules dictated that he not aim the blade towards him but he had no choice.

Immensely glad that not only had Joey shown him how to sharpen a pocketknife but also that he'd sharpened it at camp the day before, Yugi could feel the tightness of the strap immediately begin to give. He grimaced gratefully as he felt the feeling begging to return to his toes, but he didn't slacken the pace. With the toughness of the leather strap, it could be a while before he'd cut completely through.

And then, he would have to come up with a plan.

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><p>AN: And there you are - I hope you enjoyed it!

Thanks for reading and please review. Reviews make me happy!


	4. Hair and Hairline Fractures

Greetings Readers! Here is the next chapter of Heat.

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! or any of its characters.

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><p>Yugi felt a wave of relief flow over him as the final strands of the leather strap gave way to his knife and he was able to pull his leg away. Cringing slightly at the painful tingling, he massaged his leg and ankle in an effort to restore circulation.<p>

He hated being tied up. It didn't matter that it had happened more than a few times over his life; he still despised it. it reminded him of when he was bound and slowly disappearing during Yami's duel with Marik's dark self back in Battle City. And that hadn't been the only time – he'd been restrained by the Seal of Orichalcos before and after saving Yami, and more recently, he'd spent several hours tied up by a small indigenous tribe in the jungles of Brazil. They'd worshipped fire, and believed that Yugi's hair was a large, multicolored flame and that Yugi was some sort of god that could maintain an eternal flame without being burned.

They had been friendly at first but when Yugi had managed to convey that he needed to leave, they hadn't wanted to let him go. By the time the rest of the expedition had caught up, Yugi was perched on a stone and wood throne surrounded by platters of fruits – and tied tightly around his chest, arms and ankles.

Joey and Tristan hadn't been able to keep from bursting out laughing when they, Yugi, and Téa were video chatting online – often the only way for the old gang to communicate since Téa was in New York, Yugi was all over the place when not in Domino, and Tristan and Joey were in Domino. Yugi had flushed in embarrassment, but it had been hardly noticeable through the remains of the vivid face paints that had been layered on his face, despite his wasting several minutes of water trying to scrape it off.

"Are you sure they didn't think it was some sort of crown?" Téa asked sympathetically, although an amused smile clearly tugged at the corners of her mouth.

"No," Yugi sardonically laughed, "They definitely thought it was some sort of eternal flame."

Both Joey and Tristan broke into renewed roars of laughter, falling off their chairs so that only their legs could be seen over the counter at the Game Shop. Yugi looked pleadingly at Téa for help, but she only managed to roll her eyes at them.

Téa wearily rolled her eyes, a feat nearly impossible to tell because her eyes were half-lidded. While it was five o'clock in the afternoon in Brazil and 7 o'clock at night in Domino, it was 5 o'clock in the morning in New York. However, Téa had made the boys promise to call her when Yugi got back to the hotel from the dig site, regardless of what time it was. "That's the best I can do – I can't smack them from here."

Yugi arched one brow at her before winking and saying, "Well, he's already made Duel Monsters holograms; it couldn't be too hard for Kaiba to make some kind of holographic arms – "

Joey's laughter stopped abruptly and he yanked himself onto the edge of the counter, bristling. "That snake? I wouldn't trust anything that Kaiba makes as I could throw him!" Whereas the rest of the friends had eventually been more accepting of Kaiba as an acquaintance, if not as a tentative friend, Joey hadn't budged so much as an inch from his loathing. He was rather like a bulldog in that respect, with an old bone he would not let go of.

"Throw him?" Tristan countered, hauling himself onto the countertop, "Don't you mean, throw them?"

"If I can throw him, that's all the satisfaction I need!" Joey shouted.

As Tristan attempted to try and calm down Joey from his growing rant, even calling even reinforcements (namely, Joey's girlfriend and sister), Yugi had shot Téa a grin. Once again, the King of Games had expertly applied a strategy to achieve his goal – get Joey and Tristan to lay off about his hair.

Yugi grinned at the memory but then lost the grin to a surprised gasp of pain as he put weight on his freed leg. It nearly buckled beneath him and he shifted the weight to his other leg before leaning against the slab of sandstone. His hands encircled his leg, feeling for a break, but he found none. However, there was a very sore area at the back of his leg beneath the knee that he suspected was a fracture. Keeping one hand on the chamber wall for support, he limped around the room, trying to find something that could function as a makeshift crutch. It wasn't until the third laborious trip around that he noticed room that he noticed a few scattered, dilapidated spears. Gritting his teeth in preparation, Yugi left the support of the wall and, putting as little weight on his injured leg as possible, limped to the pile and scooped a few into his arms. Ignoring the pulse below his knee that seemed to reverberate through his entire leg, he made his way back to the door before dropping to his uninjured knee and letting go of the spears.

He leaned back against the slab, stretching out his legs carefully as he slid to the ground. A series of half-frantic taps echoed across the slab, resounding in Yugi's skull. He focused on the tapping, and then sent a message of his own back. "Am fine. Coming up with plan."

But first he needed to be able to get around. Yugi pulled a few of the spears towards him and used his knife to cut off the pointed ends. He then began to shave the ends, giving them a more rounded and softer feel. As he whittled, a lock of hair fell in his eyes and he pushed it away.

"No matter how I try, it always stays like this." He'd experimented with it countless times, but his hair defiantly always kept its unique, multicolored shape. But then, he liked it – it was just hard to keep a low profile with hair like that. Although saving the world with card games, having the god cards, and being labeled the King of Games didn't help much in keeping a low profile either.

The hair, limp from the Egyptian heat, flopped in his face again. He pushed it out of the way and, as he continued carving, his mind wandered.

Yugi bit his lip to keep from laughing. He had never expected a question like that from the spirit. "You want to know what gel is?"

The spirit was hovering beside him. "That's what they were fighting about, wasn't it? But all I saw was this strange tub."

Yugi sat down. This was going to take a while.

Joey had made the grave error of stealing Tristan's hair gel, and the even graver mistake of getting caught. Tristan had first thought it was Joey being stupid, and then accused him of trying to sabotage his date with Serenity. Joey, who had not known about the date with Serenity, flipped out in a burst of older brother protectiveness and jumped Tristan. In the midst of the scuffle, the two had made a bet – whoever could pin the other for twenty seconds won. If Joey won, Tristan would have to stay away from Serenity for a week – "So I can talk some sense inta her!" – and if Tristan won, Joey would…

Tristan had won, and so Joey, tied to a chair and howling, had been forced to let the girls and Tristan plaster gel into his hair, making it stand up in all directions. Joey eventually managed to break free and, since he could not hit Serenity, Mai, or Téa (who, while neither his girlfriend nor his sister, could still hit pretty hard), went after the only safe target. Yugi had attempted to break it apart, but eventually succumbed to bouts of laughter as the two sprinted out into the sunshine.

The girls remained downstairs while Yugi ran upstairs to get some food ready for the girls and the food lovers when they came back. Yami had seized the free moment to come out and talk.

"It's something that people put in their hair to make it stand up or stay down…or whatever they want it to do."

Yami quirked an eyebrow. "Why in the world would they do that?"

Yugi grinned. "Not everyone is as proud of their hair as you are, Other Me." He leaned back against the counter, being carefully not to put his elbow in the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. "Speaking of which, how come you have your hair? I mean, didn't most Pharaohs have to shave it off and wear wigs?"

Yugi had meant the question mostly in jest, although he was genuinely curious, so he was not expecting Yami's face to fall into pensiveness.

"I do not…know why, aibou."

Yugi could have smacked himself. Of course, Yami didn't know that. He didn't know anything in his past – just that he was the Nameless Pharaoh. And even that wasn't very helpful because he didn't even know his name. "Yami, I'm sorry. I didn't think-"

Although the hand was transparent, Yugi still felt the pressure on his shoulder as Yami stopped him. "Don't worry, Yugi. I take no offense."

"I am sorry, though," Yugi sighed, "it's just – you have so much confidence for not knowing all that and still going on." He shifted his feet slightly. "I wish I was brave like that."

Yami smiled one of his regal smiles, one that said that things would work out. "You are brave, aibou. You just need the confidence to see it." He looked out at the sun, watching it slowly fall to the horizon. "And there is a reason I am so confident."

"What's that?" Yugi asked as he turned to pick up the platter of snacks.

"I have you."

Yugi felt the poignant tug at his heart and continued working. "I'm still not sure what you meant by that, Yami." He spoke into the stillness, "but I'm glad to have helped somehow. I just wish I had more of that confidence right now."

* * *

><p>AN: So there you are. I hope you enjoyed reading it!

Thanks for reading and please review! They make me happy.


	5. Sweltering Hot

Greetings Readers! Here is the next chapter of Heat. I hope you enjoy it!

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! or any of its characters!

* * *

><p>The crutch, when he had finished hewing it, came up a little too short to fit into the crook of his armpit, instead reaching about halfway up his chest. He allowed himself a small victorious smile as he adjusted himself to fit more comfortably against the crutch – after years of shortness, it was still satisfying to be too <span>tall<span> for something.

As he stood up, leaning against the crutch, his sweat-soaked shirt reluctantly pulled away from his back and the stone wall, making him wince. He suddenly became aware of how sweltering hot it was, and how much time had passed as he'd hewn the crutch. Gingerly, he removed the shirt and lay down on his back on the sand in an attempt to cool off. Yugi could almost feel the heat radiating off of him in waves, and he looked down at himself. The deep red flush of his chest continued on uninterrupted across his body except for a scattering of puncture scars across his chest and stomach.

The scars had been the result of a particularly perilous expedition, produced by a deep pit, a faulty rope, and several rusty spikes at the bottom of the pit. That, and the need for an emergency tetanus shot had cut the expedition short and Yugi had been shipped back home to recover.

The fact that Téa had also been on a break at the time and visiting her family in Domino had come as both a blessing and a curse. It was always wonderful to see and hold Téa in person after months of physical separation, but she had a definite Mother Hen complex when it came to her boyfriend.

"What happened out there?" She'd asked as she pulled away the soiled bandage that had been wrapped around Yugi's chest

Yugi shrugged. "Nothing much."

"Nothing much?" Téa countered, throwing away the old bandage and picking up the another roll of bandage. "You've got scars all over your body!" That was a bit of an exaggeration, as there were only four or five scarring wounds across his upper stomach and chest. But it was still scary to see one's boyfriend's injuries, especially when some of the wounds looked like they'd been a hairsbreadth from becoming infected.

"It's okay," Yugi shot her a disarming smile, as an attempt to calm her down, "I just got into a tight spot."

Téa rolled her eyes and she placed gauze over the scarring wounds, beginning to wrap the new bandage around his chest. "That's not very reassuring." After all, Yugi was the one who had risked life and limb multiple times, been in grave danger more than once, and routinely challenged by violent madmen wielding cards – and all without letting his optimism be dampened. For him to call anything a "tight spot" probably meant that the situation had been pretty bad.

"Hey," Yugi said coaxingly, and then more seriously when he saw tears brimming in Téa's eyes. "Hey, I'm okay, aren't I?" He put a hand under her chin and tipped her head upwards to look him in the face.

"I guess." Téa sniffed, returning to the bandage-wrapping, "But I wish you'd be more careful. I hate it when you get hurt."

"Look at me." Yugi said, and Téa looked up – only to burst out laughing at her boyfriend's attempt at unleashing his infamous puppy dog look at her, the effect surprisingly not much diminished by his more narrow eyes. "Would you believe that it would never happen again?"

"Well," Téa mused before abruptly tightening the bandage, causing Yugi to let out a surprised gasp of pain, "No." She tied the bandage securely before leaning up and kissing him apologetically. "But you can promise that you'll be careful. Otherwise, I reserve the right to come after you."

Yugi laughed as he shrugged his shirt back on before pulling her close. "I promise," he replied, leaning down to kiss her…

"Téa, you're going to kill me." Yugi groaned, although a tired grin was on his face. He managed to pull himself out of the memory at the sound of pounding on the wall separating him from the rest of the expedition. He shifted so that the crutch was able to support his weight, and walked to the door. _What?_

_Got any ideas?_

_None._

_Think you could tell us how you opened the door?_

Yugi frowned in thought. He could barely remember how he'd gotten in. And he couldn't read the instructions if he wasn't in the antechamber. _Afraid not._

_We will find a way._

_I'll try on my end._ And Yugi pushed off from the wall again in search of a way out.

···

Tosen almost envied Yugi. Sure, he was trapped in an antechamber with no currently known way of escape, but at least he didn't have a headache. Tosen, on the other hand, was stuck with a group of stubborn and bickering archaeologists who were getting nowhere in getting Yugi out.

"Dynamite?" The voice sounded scandalized, "Where would we get dynamite?"

"Back at the campsite!" A younger voice countered

"And then what?" The older archaeologist asked, "Blow us all to smithereens? Or bring the ceiling down on us AND Mr. Mutou?"

"Calm down," Tosen interjected, stepping between the two fuming archaeologists. "Even if we went back to the outside, we wouldn't be able to get back to this exact spot." It wouldn't be hard to follow the increasing glow of the sun outside, but they would need Yugi to get back. And it didn't help that the wall he was trapped behind looked like pretty much every other wall. But they couldn't leave him "We'll have to make do with what we've got."

As the archaeologists all returned to throwing out ideas and arguing, albeit more quietly, Tosen's mind wandered. _Mutou, I hope you come up with something._

···

He had made four trips around the room, testing the strength of the walls and feeling for loose panels that could open up walls, but all he had to show for it was increasingly weary legs. That and the painful awareness of his tongue dehydrating and cleaving to his jaw.

_What I wouldn't give for some water,_Yugi thought as he slid down into a sitting position in an effort to conserve energy. He leaned his head forward and closed his eyes, his eyelids feeling incredibly heavy. He tried to think, but through the heated haze, all his thoughts felt thick, heavy, and in a smoldering wrap of wool. _If I could only __think_…_now what?_

Against his will, he felt himself slip into a dehydrated doze. That is, until he heard something that made his eyes pop open.

"Aibou?"

* * *

><p>AN: There you are. I'm beginning to suspect I have some bizarre addiction to writing cliffhangers. Who of you saw that coming? I barely did, but that's another story.

Thanks for reading, and please review. They make me happy!


	6. Sight for Dull Eyes

Greetings Readers! Here is the next chapter of Heat! I hope you enjoy it!

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! or any of its characters. (Desafortunadamente)

* * *

><p>Téa tapped her fingers nervously and impatiently on the counter as she listened to the other end of the chat ringing. Without being consciously aware of it, her finger-tapping somehow segued into the tempo of the big musical number in the first act of the musical she was currently in. Hours upon hours of grinding practice had etched it into her brain – at this point she was pretty sure that when she snored (not that she believed the others' accusations that she <span>did<span> snore), the wheezes emitted were in time with the number's rhythm.

Much to her relief, the other video screen flickered to life, showing a bleary-eyed Joey. She'd forgotten in her haste and worry that it was about five in the morning in Domino. She winced as a pang of guilt shot through her. "Um…did I wake you up?"

Joey managed to shoot her a half-hearted glare, although the fact that one of his eyes had slid shut lessened the effect considerably. "Whaddaya think?" He yawned widely, making no effort to hide the sound.

Téa cringed. "Sorry, Joey," she apologized, "but I really needed to talk to someone."

If he'd have had the energy, Joey would have rolled his eyes. _Why not talk when people are actually supposed to be awake? Or at least wake up Tristan or Mai!_ Besides, she roomed with other dancers – if it couldn't wait, why not talk to them? However, she was his friend, and he didn't want to hurt her feelings. "Téa," he yawned broadly, "can't this wait until later? I gotta open the shop in two hours."

"No," Téa bit her lip, "I don't think so." She took a deep breath. "I think something's wrong."

"What?" Joey's closed eye drifted slowly open as he tried to focus. "Why do ya think…"

Téa weakly shrugged. "Woman's intuition."

Joey barely managed to keep back a groan. He didn't put a whole lot of faith in the whole women's intuition thing (not that he would openly say so to Serenity or Mai). He just figured it was just because women were naturally worrywarts. He yawned. "Look, Téa, I don't get all that stuff – hold on and let me get Serenity –" Maybe his sister would kill him, but at least he could get some more precious sleep before he had to go to work. In hindsight, staying up all night to play video games with Tristan and Ryou, who was visiting from England, in the apartment he shared with Serenity wasn't the best idea he'd ever had.

"Joey." Téa's voice, although still worried, now had a core of steel in it, "I think Yugi's in trouble."

Joey's eyes shot open and he leaned forward. "What?"

···

The expedition had discussed and argued about possible solutions until their mouths began to dry out, but without coming to any acceptable conclusion. It was as they all began working their jaws to loosen their drying tongues that they realized just what a position Yugi was in.

Feeling oddly guilty for having water where Yugi didn't, Tosen took a small gulp from his canteen to clear his throat and ward off the headache he could feel building up between his eyes. He felt completely useless – a feeling both foreign and unpleasant to him.

"Now what?" the bookish archaeologist asked worriedly, all self-assuredness gone as he adjusted his glasses.

"I'm…not sure," Tosen said slowly. Shaabbon sniffed audibly and ominously in a corner, and a sort of panic settled over the faces of the remaining expedition members. Up until now, this had been a frustrating and time-consuming problem. But now that the chances seemed high that they wouldn't be able to get Yugi out…it was absolutely terrifying.

"D'you think he might've come up with something?" One of the younger archaeologists asked tentatively. Yugi had been able to pull them out of several tight spots before.

Tosen turned to the wall and, letting out a deep breath he wasn't aware he was holding, began rapping a message to Yugi with his knuckles. He waited, and two minutes ticked away. He rapped the message again, faster and more intensely. "Mutou, please respond," he muttered.

No response. Tosen tried again, murmuring under his breath. "Come on, Yugi, come on…"

···

Yugi blinked twice. And, as that hadn't changed anything, he blinked once more. Then groaned.

It was bad enough that he was tired, dirty, dehydrated, and probably going to die in here at the rate they were going. But now he was tired, dirty, dehydrated, going to die, and was hallucinating.

What other explanation could there be for his seeing the long-since departed Pharaoh in front of him? In any other circumstance that would have been cause for no small amount of celebration, but now it nearly drenched him in despair. _I guess the mind's the first thing to go._

"Aibou."

And now he was hallucinating and hearing things.

"Aibou?" The spirit inclined his head, confused as to why Yugi had not looked up. _Can he not hear me?_ He had thought that Yugi had looked up when he had first addressed him, but maybe that had been wishful thinking. He had no idea how he had gotten here or why he had been sent here. Last thing that Yami had known, he had been standing in the gardens beyond the palace, talking and laughing with Mahad and Mana. Then there was a sudden pang in his heart, followed by a blinding light. Once his eyes had adjusted to the shock of blinding light suddenly fading into gloomy darkness, he realized that he was in a tomb.

For a moment, he wondered if something had gone wrong with the Final Duel, resulting in him being sent back to the tomb where the remains of his mortal body had been entombed. A bolt of panic had rushed through him before he realized that this was not his tomb. In fact, he did not even recognize the style that the architects had used – so it must have been built after his reign, since he had been very familiar with the tombs of the pharaohs who came before him.

_So why am I summoned –?_ His internal question stopped short as he looked around and recognized a familiar form. _Yugi…_his closest friend and former host was lying against the sandstone wall of the chamber, his head propped up as he slouched in a half-lying, half-sitting position. Yami could not deny a feeling of pride of how much older Yugi had become, but he soon forgot that it in his concern.

His friend's eyes were half-lidded and dull – there was intelligent light or spark of good humor that usually dominated his unique amethyst eyes. Something was very wrong, and the former Pharaoh nearly growled in frustration that he had no idea what it was. He was not someone who liked not being in total awareness.

"Yugi?"

"Stop it, hallucination," Yugi's voice said feebly, "I'd like to keep a hold of my mind, thank you."

Yami stooped down, his face creased with concern. "What?"

Yugi squeezed his eyes shut, trying to avoid looking at the hallucination. If he did, then he might actually believe it was Yami. "If I'm going to die, I'd like to at least keep my mind to the end if you don't mind."

Yami's eyes widened and he somehow managed to grab onto Yugi's shoulders, shaking him vigorously. "What? Yugi, don't say things like that!" He nearly scolded in his worry.

"Hey, I'm dehydrated and going a little loopy. Give me a break." And then it suddenly clicked in Yugi's head. It was possible to see hallucinations, it was even possible to hear voices that weren't really there.

But there was no way that nothing could have physically moved him.

His eyes shot open. "Yami? That's really –"

At the return of his partner's senses, most of the fear wiped away from Yami's face, leaving a relieved regal smile on his face. "Yes, Yugi – it's me!"

Yugi managed to pull himself to a kneeling position, gaping at Yami in shock. The shock paralyzed him for a good two minutes, long enough for Yami to become worried again, and then he leapt forward and hugged the spirit. "I can't believe it. You're here!"

Yami returned the hug, albeit more regally but still happily. He was content in the Afterlife, but that didn't mean he didn't miss seeing Yugi and the others.

Yugi let go and stood back for a minute. "Wait. Why are you here? Is something wrong with the Afterlife? Do you need help?"

That was typical Yugi, always putting aside his own problems to help others. Yami smiled and shook his head, only to let a concerned look spread across his face. "No, everything's fine. But what's happened here?"

Yugi shrugged tiredly, leaning against the wall as the exhaustion began to work against him again. "I was on an expedition with some other archaeologists in Egypt when we came into this tomb. I jumped ahead of the group and found this chamber. Unfortunately something happened in the antechamber to make the wall I opened crash back down." He rubbed the back of his sweaty scalp, dislodging some of the dirt and sand that clung to his hair. "And I'm not sure how to get out." He looked hopefully at Yami, "But…you knew all about pyramids, you even had some made. Do you have any ideas?"

The warm glow that had filled Yami at seeing Yugi begin to grow cold and heavy. Regretfully, he shook his head. "I'm…sorry, Yugi. I do not."

* * *

><p>AN: Yami doesn't have a plan? Who saw that coming? More cliffhangers! (Maybe I need to start going to Cliffhangers Anonymous)

Thanks for reading and please review! They make me happy!


	7. By a Hair

Greetings Readers! I apologize for the delay in updating. Life has been a bit crazy over here. Without further ado, here's the next chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! or any of its characters.

* * *

><p>"Téa, are you sure?" Serenity asked worriedly, shifting so that Téa could better see her through the webcam lens.<p>

Joey's shout had been loud enough not only to wake up Ryou and Tristan, who had been sacked out on the couch and armchair, but also to cause the guy living in the apartment below to start hitting the floor with a broom to stop the noise. Once the two other guys had managed to rub the sleep out of their eyes, they'd hurried over to see what had caused Joey to react the way he had. And it was their resultant surprise that had roused Serenity from her sleep.

Even with her long hair tousled and her eyes still heavy with sleep, she was still beautiful, and Tristan could not keep his eyes off her as she came into the room. Joey noticed and, even though he had grudgingly given permission for his friend to date his sister, hit the unsuspecting man upside the back of the head. "Keep your eyes to yourself," the overprotective brother grumbled sleepily, as Tristan shot him a glare and Bakura attempted to stifle his laughter behind his hand.

Téa either didn't see the guys' antics or chose to ignore them. "As sure as I can be," she said determinedly. "I can't say how…I just know."

Serenity nodded gravely, and the boys yawned behind her, looking somewhat less convinced but still concerned.

"So," Joey yawned, "what are we gonna do." He popped his back. "'Cause if out little buddy is in trouble, we gotta get him out of it!"

"Where exactly is he right now?" Ryou queried curiously. Living abroad in England kept him a little separated from the rest of the group. "In Egypt, isn't he?"

"Yes," Téa said, suddenly shuffling around with the papers on her desk before pulling out a postcard with pyramids on the front. "He's in Giza," she read.

Joey frowned. "That's not where the Pharaoh was buried, is it?"

"No," Téa shook her head, "they're a good hundred miles from there.'

"So, it doesn't have anything to do with the Pharaoh?" Tristan asked, chewing at the corner of his mouth in thought. "So it's not any bad things from the past out to get him then, right?"

There was no accusation in the tone, but Ryou cringed imperceptibly anyway.

"I don't know _what_ is going on," Téa becoming a little exasperated. "I just know that he's in trouble."

The rest of the group in Domino all exchanged glances. Serenity's acceptance of woman's intuition withstanding, they didn't have a single piece of proof to verify Téa's fears. At the same time, she'd experienced these feelings multiple times over the years and rarely, if ever, had she been wrong. Then again, they were half a world away from Egypt and couldn't do anything immediately.

"Téa?" Ryou politely ventured, as he watched his friend try and relax herself. "Have you tried to call? Maybe we can talk with him or somebody who knows where he-"

The worried girlfriend's face lit up and she quickly pulled out her phone. Punching in a familiar number on speed dial, she listened to the dial tone before putting the phone on speaker and placing it so that the speakers on her laptop could pick up the sound.

Subconsciously, all leaned forward as the phone continued to ring…

**···**

Kaslan, one of the errand runners for the expedition, turned in his sleep and hit his face in the rolled up cloth that served as a pillow so to block out the bright rays of the sun. It took some skill to sleep into the late afternoon hours with the sun in one's face, but he managed. That, and he had gone on a late-night trek with some of the others to pick up supplies from the nearest town.

He was in the middle of a delightful dream, surrounded by enormous piles of ice cream, a new treat he had been introduced to by some of the foreign archaeologists, when the closest scoop (chocolate chip cookie dough0 began singing. And singing…And singing…

Kaslan opened his eyes and looked blearily around him, disappointed that he'd woken up before he'd had the chance to sample some of the rare singing ice cream. However, as he blinked into awareness, he noticed that the singing had not disappeared; instead, it had become even louder.

The sound and the realization that the cloth bundle was vibrating led Kaslan to rifle through the pockets of what looked to be one of the coats that the archaeologists wore at night against the cool desert wind. He finally pulled out his hand with a triumphant noise to see a battered, silver phone. The face of a pretty, pale-faced lady spread across the screen and impulsively pressed a button to stop the singing.

"'Alo?" He murmured in what he thought was a debonair tone.

"_Hello, Yugi?"_ The female voice answered through the phone, "_Why haven't you called? Are you all right?"_

Kaslan gave a confused grunt. He didn't know any of the words the lady was saying, although he did recognize the name that some of the archaeologists called _melekh_. Maybe they would know where he was and hopefully wouldn't get too mad that Kaslan had the phone and had just wasted the afternoon sleeping.

Without even pausing to part the flaps of the tent, he tore out into the dimming Egyptian sunlight and towards the sounds of the ground being excavated.

Luckily, the archaeologist who was supervising the excavation was one of the nicer ones. It was a bit frustrating that he didn't have much skill in spoken Arabic, having been born in England, but most of the time he was able to communicate with those who only spoke Arabic.

"Hey!" Kaslan bellowed as he ran up to the archaeologist, his arms pinwheeling in his frenzy, "Call fuh _melekh_!"

The archaeologist sighed and his brow furrowed in concern. "He's not here."

Kaslan shook the phone in his face. "Fuh _melekh_!"

"Yugi isn't here." The archaeologist, Buscan, repeated firmly. "And I don't know where he is," he continued as Kaslan, undeterred, tried to force the phone into his hand. "The whole group should have been back by now." He grunted with irritation. "And after that crash – who knows what happened? If I wasn't the only one here, I'd already be there."

There was a faint gasp heard through the phone and Buscan looked down to see a vaguely familiar face. It was when the connection was dropped, that Buscan remembered where he'd seen the face – in a photograph that Mutou put in his tent and described of his girlfriend –

Buscan let out another groan of frustration and panic. Now Mutou's girlfriend was probably going to have a heart attack, and if she called back, he couldn't bring himself to muster up a soothing lie. _Where are they?_

···

If there was something that Joey hated, it was the smug face that Téa got every time she said, I told you so. It wasn't bad enough that he was wrong, it was that she got such satisfied pleasure from being right. He hated that expression.

But the numb, scared look on her face as the phone lost the connection was a hundred times worse than that.

···

"So," Yugi asked, as he wearily began another round of tapping and shifting stones to see if any of them would budge, "how is the afterlife?"

Yami was perched worriedly in a corner, wishing that he was able to feel things in the land of the living, so that he could help Yugi find the vital weak spot that would free him. Years ago, he might have tried to overpower Yugi's body so as to have hands that could manipulate the environment, but Yugi was no longer his host and it was impossible. Besides, the shock of suddenly being overpowered might cause irreparable damage to his tired mind and dehydrated body. He wanted to do more than talk, but it seemed to be all he could do to ease his friend's burden. "It is…different," he replied, "Very similar to what I can remember from my younger years in Egypt, but the underlying feel seems very different from any place I've been before."

"And your old friends?" Yugi asked with genuine curiosity, although the effect was distinctly muffled by the sheer exhaustion in his tone.

"Very well," Yami smiled at the curiosity, even as his eyes grew worried as Yugi's movements grew increasingly clumsy and sluggish. "Mana asks of you, fondly. You seem to have made quite an impression."

"Eh," Yugi shrugged a shoulder, "it's probably just because I looked like you when you were younger."

Yami shook his head affectionately. Yugi, while not having low self-esteem despite all the negative things that had happened in his childhood, continued to have no clue about how remarkable he was. "I doubt that."

Yugi faltered, much more drastically this time, and Yami shot forward, again inwardly cursing his inability to help. As Yugi steadied himself against the wall, Yami started speaking, in order to keep the dull glaze that had begun to show in Yugi's eyes from spreading. "And of our friends at home?"

"They're fine." Against his better judgment, Yugi slumped against the wall and slid down into a sitting position. "Great, actually. Joey's working with Grandpa, Ryou's enjoying being in England," he yawned, "Tr'stan's f'nally dating Seren'ty…and I was gonna ask," he yawned even more and his eyes were beginning to droop, "gonna ask Téa t'marry me…"

Yami gave a proud but exasperated snort. "At last. It took you long enough, aibou."

It was hard to see the glare through the half-lidded gaze, but Yami managed. Yugi sighed, "It'll take me longer now. I don't see how I'm gonna get out of here." His eyes slid shut. "Maybe it's better I didn't…prob'ly less painful to lose a boyfriend than a fiancée."

Even though it was pointless, Yami attempted to grab Yugi's shoulders to shake him into his senses. "Snap out of it, Yugi!" he barked in his most pharaoh-like manner, "We've been in darker times than this!"

"Dark," Yugi gave a weary chuckle, "Yami…dark." And then suddenly his eyes shot open. "Dark!"

Yami frowned. "Yugi?"

Yugi straightened up, his eyes suddenly alert as they skimmed across the room intently. As the day had worn on, it had been getting darker in the chamber. It wasn't a darkening of his vision or his senses, it was the darkening of the room. That meant –

Yugi jumped up, and Yami leapt forward to keep his friend's unsteady frame, but Yugi's legs steadied themselves as he walked as quickly as he could over to his canteen. He pulled a tuft of fibers from the frayed end of the canteen strap, making sure that the strands weren't stiff. He then began a slow trek around the walls of the room, moving his hand with the fibers meticulously along every groove and crack of the mud bricks. Yami hovered behind him perplexedly, wishing they still had their mindlink so he would know what Yugi was thinking. He had a momentary fear that his hikari had finally cracked in the heat and lack of water, but the fear had been quickly dismissed at the look of determination in his eyes. Yugi was on to something, and he didn't know what.

It probably had only been a few minutes, but it seemed like an eternity before Yugi gave a triumphant shout. Yami rushed over and saw that the fibers were steadily fluttering in his hand. Yugi looked up with a grin. "Got it."

Yami stared at Yugi, and then at the moving fibers. Then it clicked. Only one thing could be making the fibers move like that. "Wind."

Yugi nodded. "Which means not only that the wall is on the outside of the pyramid, but that it's got an opening somewhere." He pushed on the brick. "But it's too hard to remove without help." He began scratching the top of his head in though, the sweaty, tangled locks catching on his fingers. "But how do I let them know where the spot is?"

"We've simply got to use our heads, aibou."

Creasing his eyebrows in thought, Yugi stood still for a moment before he realized what he had to do.. he groaned. _This is going to hurt._

···

It had been a long time since Mutou had contacted them, and Tosen could no longer restrain the growing fear and panic. Mutou couldn't have died…he was young, in good shape, and one of the nicest guys he'd ever run across…not him.

Tosen was perfectly aware and fascinated by the fact that the pyramids were tombs for the pharaohs…but the concept of it being a tomb for Yugi was appalling. The mummies were now tight cloth and bone – nothing could hurt or be hurt by them. But if Yugi died, this would not be a pleasant way to go, and he would leave behind so many people that would be hurt by his loss…

The first taps were almost completely swallowed up by the fervent squabbling and conferring behind him, but Tosen heard just enough to jerk him out of his increasingly macabre thoughts. He stared intently at the wall. "Shut up!" He barked, and the rest of the group fell silent at the urgency and volume of his tone. Then they all heard the tapping.

"Found hole in wall. Marked spot. Go outside to see." Tosen translated quickly. He knocked out a reply. _On it._

"Let's move!" He barked and, nearly sprinting in his haste, tore out of the room towards the opening of the tomb. What had taken several hours seemed to pass by in breathless, agonizing minutes as the entire expedition rushed out through the tomb and into the bright sunlight. Several paused to catch their breath, but Tosen continued to run around the perimeter of the pyramid, often nearly tripping on the shifting sand.

The adrenaline was beginning to pulse out of his body as Tosen rounded the final corner…and then he stopped. And then began roaring with laughter.

The others began running, worried that the heat and panic had gotten to their leader at last, and made it to where he was standing. The air rang with confused questions and inquiries, but all they got in return was a renewed bout of laughter. And then Tosen pointed.

They looked. And began grinning.

Sticking out of a crack in the side of the pyramid was a tuft of bright, multicolored, and sweat-slicked hair.

"Couldn't miss that hair in a blackout," Tosen huffed through his laughter, "Go get the dynamite!"

* * *

><p>AN: Bet you expected a cliffhanger here, didn't you? I didn't here for two reasons: (1) I haven't updated in so long, and you don't deserve to be kept hanging too much longer. (2) I wanted to feel clever by my solution, and wanted to feel like no one would have guessed it. If you did, though, that's fine! Let me know! :)

Next chapter is the last chapter!

Thanks for reading and please review! They make me happy! :)


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